I love B&W. The seller in my town said that Ilford became in bankrupsy. He sugest to me to convert my equipment to digital. I donīt want. Is the change irreversible? Tanks. Fredy Abed

-- Fredy Abed (fredyabed@gua.net), September 21, 2004

Answers

Tell your dealer to get a life. Digital imaging is fine for commercial photography and snapshots, but for fine art image making in b/w, film is the way to go.

Digital printing looks like ink on paper despite what the self proclaimed proponents say. Take a look at a fine silver or platinum print in a gallery next to an ink jet print.....No comparision!

If you want to take snapshots of the grandkids get a digital camera. If you are serious, continue using film.

-Bill Rennaker

-- Bill Rennaker (billrennaker@aol.com), September 26, 2004.

Here in Italy we have a long tradition in Black & White images, but now it's like the passage from oil on canvas to photography on early 1800. The majority of people doesn't have, here in Italy, a deep culture about history of photography, in particular about the quality of black & white images.Now everyone is convinced that to became a good photographer it's just needed a digital camera and an inkjet printer and 100 years more of knowledge can disappear. Museums, expositions and institutions have to give to the people the cultural informations that they don't have, but it's a dream. I think black & white images will never end,the same way that painting exists today as 500 year ago. I talk about Italy, i don't know in USA what's going on but i am curious. Bye Adriano Gasparini Gomes - Rome(Italy) www.adrianogasparini.it

-- Adriano Gasparini Gomes (info@adrianogasparini.it), October 06, 2004.

Hello, I hope it will not. Newspapers did not die because of radio and TV. I hope it will continue to be just a different form of art. Today after some time I was surfing the net to find soem decent printers for black and white. Nothing as good as traditional photography offers is available. The prices are high and immages have problems.I have two cameras a SLR Contax and Mamiya 330. They are offeringdigital cameras for thousands and thousands of dollars and saying they will produce immages almost as film does. However, I cannot get rid of a feeling I amlooking at a synthetic picture when I look at a didgital immage. Everything is OK - sharpness and so on but on the other hand evrything has taste of a picture being artificial. Valentinas

-- valentinas (mitev@rferl.org), October 16, 2004.

B&W is not dead or dieying at all! Even though, Ilford is inreceivership, a new and better company will emerge. If you followed the trend over the last two or three years, you could see that some European and Asian B&W films, papers and chemicals have re-surfaced on the North American market. Forte, MACO Breggen, Seagull and others, have brought us traditional and even new products! The latest entry into the B&W market is Rollei, with its incredible R3 B&W film (you can find the info on MACO's website). B&W will be around for a long time. When photography was born two centuries ago, artists, painting in oil or aquarell, were not extinct, right? We will see the same with film. Digital is great, but it is a different art. Remember, it is all marketing driven. Once the market is saturated with digital, somebody will bring back film, just to "open a new market" Siegi niedermair

-- Siegi Niedermair (sniedermair@on.aibn.com), October 17, 2004.

I, too, love black and white FILM and have been exhibiting as well as teaching for a while now. No, b&w is not going away and NO, digital will not be forced on all of us. I agree with the gentleman who mentioned the richness of a gelatin silver print as opposed to the ink on paper from digital. Digital has its place and all the "techies" love it. I can see its worth commercially, etc. But as an artist, there is a Zen like experience to the whole process of traditional photography.

-- Maida Millan (mmillan@aol.com), October 18, 2004.

Ilford did what!? NEWS! I will have to check. I have, in my studio, made a partial transition to digital but find now I am able to charge more for my fine art nude prints if they are shot on film BUT portraits, digital is the way to lower cost, lower the price and to generate more trafic.

I am not happy with the digital way but as it enters, we have to take advantage of it, fine art for exhibit, hard film, larger printes and higher archival tech.........

Michael

PS, No chapter 11 or 7 reported.........record profits reports for FY04, new generation B&W paper is being developed thought they are no longer producing 35mm film.

-- Michael Troop (troopm@yahoo.com), December 02, 2004.

I have come back to black and white photography after a 25 year break , because of business demands i didnt have the time ,now i have ,I know there are 1000s of people like me who wont let it disappear , the demand by creative photogs will keep it alive , watch for a resurgance and buy up cheap equipment while the technocrats head into digital.

-- peter smith (psmi7460@bigpond.net,au), December 07, 2004.

Well, I hope I will still be able to get Ilford supplies. That is pretty much all I use is Ilford film and developing chemicals and paper for that matter. As far as B&W going out, never! Everyone is right, digital prints do not compair to real B&W images. I don't intend to switch to digital, it may be fine for some folks but for me it is Film and Paper! I have printed a few B&W's from my computer just for fun, and I have never liked the results, just not true B&W!

-- Vicki McLead (vmclead@yahoo.com), January 13, 2005.

I just read here that I;ford isn't going to produce 35mm film anymore.......That really sucks! That's all I use!

-- Vicki McLead (vmclead@yahoo.com), January 13, 2005.

my photo teacher said ilford's black and white is going bankrupt. that sucks, also kodak is gonna quit making white chemicals and that good stuff. that sucks too. but he said there is a company in montana that makes everything kodak makes, just under a different name. so black and white may be harder to come by these days but now its truly becoming a fine art. i personally don't enjoy digital that much. i think it looks like puke compared to film. i'm just now delving into infra red and its hard since i'm starting out but i love it, its so strange, just like me. keep up with the black and white man

-- nick stodola (scoobert6@hotmail.com), February 16, 2005.